Christine and Randal Arnold found guilty on all felony child abuse counts.

Jefferson County jurors found Christine Arnold — accused of starving, beating and pushing her adopted 6-year-old son down a flight of stairs — and her husband Randal each guilty this afternoon of two felony counts of child abuse.

Jurors listened to hours of competing expert testimony regarding the boy’s injuries, saw photographs of his back striped with bruises and cuts, and heard the child himself describe having a “bad, bad, bad headache” after Christine Arnold pushed him down the stairs at their home.

The panel took less than a day to deliberate in a case the prosecution called “tough.”

“It was clear to us this was a child being seriously abused in a number of ways,” said prosecutor Katie Kurtz. “Now he’s in a foster home doing very well in a safe and nurturing environment with people who love and cherish him.”

Christine Arnold called 9-1-1 in September 2010 to report her son was lethargic after a fall down the stairs.

The child, who weighed as little as 30 pounds at that point, told investigators Christine Arnold waited at least a day before she sought medical help. He also described being struck with a belt, being forced to take hot and cold showers and being locked in his room for hours at a time after he was caught sneaking food from the kitchen while at their home.

Defense attorneys for the couple tried to convince jurors that the boy suffered from an emotional disorder that affected his eating and caused him to injure himself.

The couple remains free on bond until their June 18 sentencing date, when they face up to 32 years in prison for each of the felony counts against them.

On Sunday, The Post reported a story about a California grandmother who became the prime suspect in a Colorado check fraud investigation after she was pickpocketed on a San Francisco trolley.

Many readers were left asking the same question that puzzled authorities as they investigated and charged Margot Somerville, 70: How did the fraudsters discover her Social Security number and the dates she opened her bank accounts?

Both are typical security questions tellers ask during large withdrawals or transactions at out-of-state banks.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals this morning kicked off its fall argument calendar, and among the cases was a long-running dispute between a Jefferson County gadfly and a former county commissioner.

In 2009, a federal jury determined that former Jefferson County Commissioner Jim Congrove violated the First Amendment rights of frequent county critic Mike Zinna. The jury awarded Zinna $1,791 in damages — a nod to the year the Bill of Rights was adopted. Zinna then sought nearly a half million dollars in attorneys’ fees from the county. But the district judge awarded Zinna only $8,000 in fees.

Before a three-judge panel at the 10th Circuit this morning, Zinna attorney Tracy Ashmore said the fee ruling had no logic behind it.

“Eight thousand dollars, with no explanation at all with how the trial court arrived at that amount, is arbitrary,” she said.

She asked the appellate judges to kick the case back to district court for a new consideration of attorneys’ fees and said no less than $300,000 would be fair based on the hundreds of hours Zinna’s attorneys put into the case.

But Patrick Tooley, an attorney for Congrove, said the fee decision was more than fair. Tooley argued that Zinna’s victory was a “Pyrrhic” one, typified by the symbolic jury award. In such legal victories, Tooley said attorneys’ fees aren’t mandated to be given to the winner. Ashmore countered that, if the jury had intended its award as nominal, it only would have given Zinna $1.

Expect the judges to take at least a few weeks to decide who’s right.

The 10th Circuit is in session all week, with two interesting cases on Thursday. One is a case challenging confinement conditions of several terrorists at Supermax. Another concerns the denial of a concealed-carry weapons permit and has drawn interest from gun-rights groups.

The suspect in a series of sexual assaults in the Denver area and Washington state believes he is a member of a secret society in which the world is divided between “alphas” and “bravos,” and that because he is an “alpha,” he can have sex with anyone he wants, according to an arrest affidavit from Snohomish County, Wash.

O’Leary’s defense attorney said the deal has been complicated because of charges filed in Washington in April. As we reported a few weeks ago, the victim in that case was charged with false reporting, in part because her attacker was so meticulous in cleaning up evidence. According to the affidavit for O’Leary’s arrest there, the victim, who was 18 at the time, also recanted her story at one point.

An attorney for accused serial rapist Marc Patrick O’Leary told a judge today that he is discussing a resolution of the case with prosecutors, and that they may have a disposition in the next few weeks.

Authorities have received a request for extradition, known as a “governor’s warrant,” asking that O’Leary be returned to Washington to face a charge on a 2008 case there. As we reported today, prosecutors say there may be a second victim in Washington, though no charges have been filed in that case.

O’Leary pleaded not guilty to the 32 counts against him for assaults in Golden and Westminster and an attempted assault in Lakewood. He is next scheduled to appear in court July 11.

Swearing at or flipping off a police officer is probably rude, but it’s speech that’s protected by the First Amendment. (Denver Post file)

Flipping the bird at a police officer or telling a cop to stick it where the sun don’t shine is not the smartest thing to do, but it’s legal.

In the last few weeks, two cases in the metro area demonstrate the First Amendment is alive and well in Colorado.

“Simply telling a cop to go screw himself is not illegal,” said Denver lawyer David Lane. “The First Amendment lives in a rough neighborhood and if you can’t stand the neighborhood move to China … or somewhere the First Amendment does not exist.”